The Brass Verdict
A Novel
Chapter One
Everybody lies.
Cops lie. Lawyers lie. Witnesses lie. The victims lie.
A trial is a contest of lies. And everybody in the courtroom knows this. The
judge knows this. Even the jury knows this. They come into the building knowing
they will be lied to. They take their seats in the box and agree to be lied to.
The trick if you are sitting at the defense table is to be patient. To wait. Not
for just any lie. But for the one you can grab on to and forge like hot iron
into a sharpened blade. You then use that blade to rip the case open and spill
its guts out on the floor.
That's my job, to forge the blade. To sharpen it. To use it without mercy or
conscience. To be the truth in a place where everybody lies.
Chapter Two
I was in the fourth day of trial in Department 109 in the downtown Criminal
Courts Building when I got the lie that became the blade that ripped the case
open. My client, Barnett Woodson, was riding two murder charges all the way to
the steel-gray room in San Quentin where they serve you Jesus juic ... read full excerpt from: The Brass Verdict ebook
